The sound of faces flapping
April 26, 2010 7:03 PM   Subscribe

Super slo-mo documentary film camera put to nefarious use (warning: Flash and audio). 105 fans of the NZ band Shihad were filmed with a Phantom HD camera while strapped to a chair and surprised with blasts of air and water at 40x slower than real life for this music video.
posted by FreezBoy (28 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Previously (now it's here)
posted by ddaavviidd at 7:12 PM on April 26, 2010


Similar concept, different execution.
posted by FreezBoy at 7:17 PM on April 26, 2010


Coolest use of Flash I've seen in a long time. If the average Flash site were half this good, I'd quit bitching about it.
posted by Western Infidels at 7:23 PM on April 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


This is pretty mesmerizing. Cool video.

ddaavviidd, take your previously, combine it with this previously and you get this. Which may be two of the main inspirations for the video in this FPP.
posted by barrett caulk at 7:24 PM on April 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'd be surprised too if somebody blasted me with air & water 40x slower than real life.
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:26 PM on April 26, 2010 [7 favorites]


It's like they somehow animated my copy of An Album of Fluid Motion and put people in it...
posted by indubitable at 7:30 PM on April 26, 2010


:-/ fascinating concept - but is there some law that bands are incapable of showing the slightest originality in their music these days?!

I'd also say that the video, which is slow and peaceful and cheerful, is completely incompatible with the upbeat commercial rock sound that they attain.

Unfortunately, there was no way to turn the sound off...
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 7:37 PM on April 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


This serves no purpose and must be destroyed.
posted by Pecinpah at 7:38 PM on April 26, 2010 [5 favorites]


Unfortunately, there was no way to turn the sound off...

Uh... Your speakers don't have a volume control?
posted by Sys Rq at 7:46 PM on April 26, 2010


but is there some law that bands are incapable of showing the slightest originality in their music these days?!

Just for heavily promoted major label bands.

(Well, even that probably isn't true. But this is some boring music)
posted by delmoi at 7:47 PM on April 26, 2010


This is pretty cool. I could probably watch this a few times and notice lots of new things each time.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 8:11 PM on April 26, 2010


Eh, the photography gimmick is interesting enough, but not enough to justify posting some band's promotional video here, grumble snark crotchet.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 8:18 PM on April 26, 2010


umm. Why is that nefarious? Reasonably interesting photo stuff and interface. Fairly dull music. Nefarious?
posted by Babblesort at 8:42 PM on April 26, 2010


Uh... Your speakers don't have a volume control?

I generally have music I actually want to hear running. I don't want to shut that off in order to watch some video. Often if I see a video I like with terrible music, I'll just mute the music and listen to my own...

(To be pedantic, the volume controls on my speakers aren't within my reach anyway - but of course I can adjust my volume from the computer...)
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 9:05 PM on April 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


I generally have music I actually want to hear running. I don't want to shut that off in order to watch some video. Often if I see a video I like with terrible music, I'll just mute the music and listen to my own

Hmm, windows has volume control for individual applications now, which is kind of nice when situations like this come up.
posted by delmoi at 9:12 PM on April 26, 2010


Just so I have something to offer, here's a much nastier video with somewhat better music.

And the music turns off, so you can listen to something else like my radio station if you don't like it!
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 9:14 PM on April 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


delmoi: I'm on Mac and boy, I'd give a lot for a volume control for my browser...

Or even just a volume control for Flash!
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 9:16 PM on April 26, 2010


Pretty clever replay value, in encouraging focusing in on different people for parts of the song. A few times and it has earworm potential (even if the song is so-so). Pretty neat.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 9:50 PM on April 26, 2010


Off topic, but flashmute is a systray application that can mute flash, all browser sounds and includes a volume.
posted by scodger at 12:47 AM on April 27, 2010


In Shihad's defence; they've had some good songs (A Day Away, My Mind's Sedate), and it's nice to see come chaps from NZ move to Australia and actually have a job, but now, still smarting from their brief experiment in changing their name to "Pacifier" after 9/11, they've just hit their groove and are churning out a genre I like to call "Expected Rock".
posted by Jimbob at 1:20 AM on April 27, 2010


A+++
would watch again
posted by hypersloth at 1:39 AM on April 27, 2010


Ah, Shihad. Bless. A bunch of kids from a dreary Wellington suburb who started a Metallica covers band in the late '80s, they once looked like they were going somewhere ... interesting. Their first album, Churn, was produced by Killing Joke founder Jaz Coleman, and it was influenced not only by Coleman, but also by the New Zealand industrial/post punk/noise rock bands Bailter Space and The Skeptics. The story goes that their burly roadie one day mentioned that he had a band, and brought in some recordings for them to listen to. That band turned out to be Bailter Space, and Shihad tried to emulate the post-punk guitar textures and polyrhythmic beats of their roadie's band and marry them with the thrash aesthetic they'd grown up with.

But, while Shihad released a couple of OK-seeming followups, they never fulfilled that early promise, gradually becoming the kind of corporate rock band seen in the FPP. Bailter Space, meanwhile, emigrated to New York and struggled on for another 15 or so years, releasing a bunch of songs and videos that still seem fresh and innovative. Their bass-player returned to New Zealand a couple of years ago and set up a coffee shop in the Wellington suburb of Newtown. Not sure what the other two are doing now.
posted by Sonny Jim at 4:33 AM on April 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


Hmm, windows has volume control for individual applications now, which is kind of nice when situations like this come up.

delmoi, which version are you referring to by "now"? Is that a patch, or a version feature? Interested, because I would like that, but run XP SP3.
posted by IAmBroom at 6:28 AM on April 27, 2010


Windows 7 has it.
posted by lizarrd at 8:36 AM on April 27, 2010


Vista has individual mixers too.
posted by aerotive at 9:33 AM on April 27, 2010


More people being surprised in Slow-Mo, in a band (Cursive) music video.
i think I read somewhere that they were either popping balloons or squirting off an air-horn.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 11:31 AM on April 27, 2010


I thought the flashification of the video was pretty nifty. The interactivity of it made me spend way more time on it than I would have otherwise (though, regrettably I can't imagine those wearing ponchos were -entirely- surprised by the deluge.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:22 PM on April 27, 2010


Very slick flash, nicely done. Terrible music, though.
posted by zardoz at 3:07 PM on April 27, 2010


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